How to Find out What Is Taking up Space on an iPhone

by C. Taylor

The Apple iPhone has a finite amount of memory that must house photos, videos, music, apps and data. Without memory card support, you can't simply change cards to create storage space. Therefore, you'll eventually need to clean the iPhone to create space for new apps or files. The first step in creating space is knowing what is taking up the most space on the device.

1

Tap "Settings" from the iPhone's home screen.

2

Tap "General" and then "Usage."

3

Look in the "Storage" section to see which apps and file types use the most space. The list is in descending order by the amount of memory used, so the top-most apps use the most space. If you need to see more than the top 10 memory-consumers, tap "Show All Apps."

4

Tap any listed item to see further details of its memory usage.

Tips

The biggest consumers of storage space are usually media files, such as pictures, videos and music. If you keep your iPhone synced or backed up with iTunes, you already have copies of these files, so you can safely remove large files that you don't regularly use.

Another option is using a cloud-based service, such as iCloud or Dropbox, to store your files online. You can then access them via the Internet, so they don't take up your limited iPhone storage.

Warning

Information in this article applies to the iPhones running iOS 6 or 7. It may vary slightly or significantly with other versions or products.